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CIM Opera Theater: Don Giovanni (Apr. 23)

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by Peter Feher

It’s hard not to be enamored with Don Giovanni, Mozart’s supreme realization of passion, danger, and desire in music. And CIM Opera Theater made falling in love with this 1787 masterpiece the most natural thing thanks to a splendid production at Playhouse Square last week.

Taking the stage of the Mimi Ohio Theatre on Wednesday, April 23, for the first of two performances, the largely student cast seemed to be discovering the drama afresh. The story of the cad and lecher Don Juan has been told countless times, but the Italianate version that Mozart crafted with librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte remains the most viscerally immediate, even centuries later.

[Read more…]

CIM Opera Theater presents Don Giovanni (Part 2)

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by Mike Telin

On April 23 and 25 at 7:00 pm in Playhouse Square’s Mimi Ohio Theatre, CIM Opera Theatre will present Mozart’s masterpiece Don Giovanni. The show is directed by JJ Hudson and conducted by Harry Davidson. Tickets are available online.

In this article, Hudson introduces CIM alum Brian Myer, who will sing the title role, and Andrew Hiers, who plays the Commendatore. We also hear from cast members Kiana Lilly (Donna Anna) and Caroline Friend (Zerlina).

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CIM Opera Theater presents Don Giovanni

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by Mike Telin

“He is like the great seducer — Don Juan — and there is cosmic revenge taken on him. But he does his best to ruin many lives in the process.” This is how JJ Hudson, interim artistic director of CIM Opera Theater, described the title character of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni.

On April 23 and 25 at 7:00 pm in Playhouse Square’s Mimi Ohio Theatre, CIM Opera Theatre will present Mozart’s masterpiece. The show is directed by Hudson and conducted by Harry Davidson. Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

CIM Opera Theater: Direct from the Headlines — Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters

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by Mike Telin

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the CIM Opera Theater’s performances of  Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters on February 1 and 2, 2025, at the Cleveland Museum of Art have been canceled. Refunds are being issued to all ticket holders.

“As an artistic and stage director who enjoys telling stories, this is a very compelling work and something that our students can sink their dramatic teeth into. It’s also a piece that audiences can get lost in, and ask questions about as the story goes along.”

That’s how CIM Opera Theater’s interim artistic director JJ Hudson characterized Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters in a telephone interview. In his synopsis, the composer notes that the 2009 work — his first opera — follows one woman’s dangerous attempt to escape her life as a member of the FLDS Church (Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints), a sect that split from mainstream Mormonism in the early 20th Century, largely because of the LDS Church’s renunciation of polygamy. [Read more…]

CIM Opera Theater to stage Emmanuel Chabrier’s L’étoile

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by Mike Telin

“It’s an incredibly charming work and unabashedly silly,” stage director JJ Hudson said about CIM’s forthcoming production of Emmanuel Chabrier’s L’étoile. “There’s so much vitality and it’s full of great, catchy melodies.”

On Saturday, November 16 at 7:00 pm, CIM Opera Theater will present Chabrier’s comic opera at Westfield Studio Theatre in Playhouse Square, sung in French with English dialogue. Harry Davidson conducts the CIM Orchestra. The production will be repeated on Sunday at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

Unabashedly silly? Here’s what happens. [Read more…]

CIM Opera Theater explores a Baroque fantasy world of love and magic with student production of Handel’s Alcina

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by Mike Telin
This article was originally published in the Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com

“Fantasy and opera go hand-in-hand really well,” CIM Opera Theater interim director JJ Hudson said during a telephone call. And when it comes to fantasy, the Cleveland Institute of Music’s upcoming production of George Frederick Handel’s Alcina is all about fantasy. “We’re not downplaying the various reversals of fortune via magic — that’s part of the fun, and we want this show to be fun,” says Hudson.

Still, Hudson does think the opera’s plot is a little bizarre. The story takes place on a magical island belonging to the sorceress Alcina, who seduces every man who comes along, only to turn them into rocks or wild animals once she’s grown tired of their company.

Her most recent victim is the knight Ruggiero, which causes his fiancée Bradamante and her guardian Melisso to follow him to the island. Disguised as a man named Ricciardo, she attempts to free Ruggiero with the help of a magic ring. The plan goes astray when Alcina’s sister Morgana becomes smitten with Ricciardo and dumps her lover Oronte. [Read more…]

CIM Opera Theater: JJ Hudson directs Dialogues of the Carmelites

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by Mike Telin

Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites recounts a fictionalized version of the real-life story of the Martyrs of Compiègne, a group of Carmelite nuns who, during the closing days of the Reign of Terror, were guillotined in Paris for refusing to renounce their vocation.

On Friday, March 3 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, March 5 at 3:00 pm, CIM Opera Theater will present Poulenc’s haunting opera directed by JJ Hudson. Harry Davidson conducts the CIM Orchestra. Tickets are available online.

Since 2021, JJ Hudson has been Professor of Opera at Georgia State University and was recently appointed Artistic Director of the Harrower Summer Opera Workshop. His upcoming productions include A Little Night Music for Opera in the Ozarks, Ariadne auf Naxos for Lakes Area Music Festival, and La serva padrona, Dido and Aeneas, and Our Town​ for Georgia State University Opera Theater.

I caught up with the director by phone and began our conversation by asking him about his history with Poulenc’s opera. [Read more…]

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